‘Ellis,’ I say, ‘why would Mary Anne have an old car key tucked in the back of her desk drawer?’

‘Oh my God. This looks like –’

‘Say it.’

‘The key to Roxy’s Camaro.’

‘Her motherfucking Camaro,’ I repeat. ‘It could be a spare. But –’ I remember something else. ‘The letters. The note in the car and the one sent to your mom. Didn’t Lenore say Mary Anne was severely dyslexic?’

‘Oh God. Oh my God.’

My brain is collapsing. I’m functioning on autopilot. I’m not choosing to think – my thoughts have left Mona somewhere else, too fast, somewhere along the shore. ‘So Mary Anne left the note in the car,’ I say. ‘But why? Why would she have done that? Roxy said something to Mary Anne that made even Archie angry. But what was the row about? Maybe Archie gets all riled up, shoots Roxy. It’s an accident. Obviously Archie would want to keep that quiet – but why would Booker?’

‘I – don’t know. I don’t know. He must have done something bad himself.’

‘And then why would Mary Anne write the note? She wanted to get rid of Roxy? Or cover up for the two of them?’

But Roxy was supposed to leave for Nashville the following week. She was already going. It doesn’t make any sense.

‘We need to talk to Mary Anne.’ I slump against the wall. ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t understand. I’m missing something. And Baby Blue …’

‘We should go home, Mona,’ Ellis says, finally.

I don’t know why, but at first I think when he says home he’s telling me to go back to Indiana.

He’s not wrong. We should get some sleep.

Before we say goodbye at our classic breakoff point at the isthmus, Ellis stops. ‘Did you mean what you said?’ he asks. ‘About me not needing to be there?’ The words are so vulnerable they’re practically flayed.

‘No, Ellis, of course not. I’m sorry. I snap when I’m nervous. You’re so incredibly important. I mean it. Please believe me.’

His half-smile is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.

I hug him for eleven heartbeats. He’s the one to break it. ‘Night,’ he says finally.

On the dark walk back to the dorm I remember I’d told Ellis I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him, even though I keep happening to him, over and over and over.

‘There’s a bunch of cops outside The Island Spot.’